Flowers For Algernon Theme

Short story Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes gives the opportunity for many different themes. Even if I have only chosen one, ‘ Too much of anything is not good for anybody’ that does not mean that it is the only one that I can see throughout the story. Though I do find it to be the best represented. As the story starts out we see that the main character Charlie is obviously not very intelligent. Some might interpret this to mean that he is not very happy, but he is actually very enthusiastic about everything in his life and everything it has to offer. This is specifically shown when he is chosen to participate in an expirement/surgery that could potentially triple his intelligence. After Charlie goes through the surgery he starts getting tested on his intelligence level. Because he is only in the beginning process he starts to becoming frustrated at constantly failing these and feeling stupid. As the story progresses he starts to gain intelligence at a un humanly rate and have much more knowledge than anyone around him. During
“Contrary to my earlier impression of him, Dr.Nemur is not a genius at all.”(Flowers For Algernon, pg. 206) Going through what he has found on the procedure , he discovers that his mind is not there to stay, and neither might he be. “His brain had decreased in weight and there was a general smoothing out of cebeal convolution as as a deepening and broadening of brain fissures. I guess the same thing is or will be soon happening to me.” (Flowers For Algernon, pg. 211). As he realizes this he soon becomes depressed. Realizing that the thing he once longed for so much had became the one thing that pulled his life